Saving You From Yourself
by Refugeeoftumblr
Summary: Artemis Fowl has never had what could be considered a 'good' family life. The only place he feels somewhat free is at St. Bartleby's, where he doesn't have to see his abusive father. But when he begins to make friends (and perhaps more) with another troubled teenager named Holly, how will he deal with the things he's tried to hard to hide coming to light?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Artemis wanted to scream. The pressure built in his chest like a physical force demanding release, but he choked it back, making a beeline for the safety of the open door at the end of the hallway. Pain hazed the edges of his vision; had anyone else been there, the gash in his side would have been obvious, standing out against his pale skin. But luck, in this one small way, seemed to be with him – nobody else was around to witness him making a dash for his bedroom. Good. He had enough problems to deal with. His suit jacket was irredeemable, for one thing, ripped down the side as though he'd been in a fight with a lion and soaked through with blood. He'd have to find a way to get rid of it without the servants noticing – that large Eurasian, Butler, had been taking too much notice of him lately. The shirt, too. It was white. No amount of dry cleaning would remove the stains now.

_Yet another thing ruined because of-_ Artemis swung the bedroom door shut behind him as if to ward off the thought, cutting it short. He had to focus on assessing and cleaning his injury. Today was the first day St. Bartleby's allowed students back to live on campus – to get used to their dorms – before classes began, and he would never be able to make it there on time if Butler (or heaven forbid, his mother) took him to the hospital again. Worse, if he had to miss the beginning of term, his parents might decide the tuition wasn't worth it and pull him out of St. Bartleby's altogether. Artemis felt his stomach churn; he couldn't let that happen. Staying here all year...

Realizing that he'd been clutching at his wrist, Artemis let go and took a steadying breath. It hurt to take a breath that deep, aggravating his side, but it also reminded him what he had to do. Limping to the bathroom, he shut that door too and flicked on the lights.

What greeted him in the mirror looked like something from a horror movie: a pale youth, clothes ripped, blood dripping to the tiles, standing spellbound as it looked him in the eyes.

_Do I look that terrible?_

His eyes – deep blue, like his father's – were puffy and bloodshot. His sleek raven black hair, normally so smooth and orderly, was out of place, going so many directions at once that he might as well have just run through a hurricane. But those things were not what worried him the most; he could fix his hair, put makeup on to hide the redness and bags around his eyes, even bandage his side and wear slightly larger suits to keep anything from showing. The bruise forming on his right cheek, however, made his heart clench. Could he possibly hide _that_ with makeup? Not likely. His strongest foundation might be able to minimize it, though. His classmates and teachers would notice, undoubtedly, and some might even ask questions, but as long as he could make it look less severe they would buy whatever story he made up to explain it. He hoped.

Left Foot Fowl always fell over and hurt himself, after all. It was far from unusual for him to have bruises.

First things first, though, he had to clean and bandage his side. This was no easy task with only one hand, but Artemis was used to that; he'd worn a prosthesis as long as he could remember, covering up the way his arm cut off just above where his wrist should have been. Well, the elbow-length gloves he usually wore did the covering up, but it was those combined with the prosthesis that kept people from looking too hard. In any case, he could maneuver the rags and cleaning solution nearly as well as if he still had a hand there, using the prosthetic to apply pressure and keep things in place as he manipulated caps and bottles with his other hand.

Artemis counted his lucky stars that the gash wasn't so bad this time. No doctors or hospitals needed. Sure, he had bled quite a bit, but as long as he cleaned up the evidence he would be fine – it was already beginning to slow down and clot, and the injury wasn't deep enough to be truly worrying. He could go to school. He could get away from his father for a while, and for those few precious months all he would have to worry about would be homework and test grades. Easy. Nothing to worry about.

Once he was done checking and double checking his handiwork Artemis leaned against the sink, letting his shoulders droop with exhaustion. The hum of the fluorescent lights had begun to corkscrew right to the center of his headache, and his throat felt strangely parched. All he wanted to do was drink several glasses of water and crawl into bed, but he knew he couldn't: there was still blood on the tiles, for one, and he wouldn't be able to sleep much, even assuming he went to bed right away. He'd have to budget extra time to do his makeup when he woke up too, and find a suit that wouldn't catch on his bandage or ride up. He couldn't let somebody see.

Groaning, the teenager rolled his shoulders and straightened up. This was going to be a long day.

oOoOo

"Artemis. Are you ready?"

Butler and Juliet were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, Juliet's bags resting on the tile by her feet. They made an odd pair, Butler tall and highly muscled while his teenage sister was smaller, blonde-haired and lithe. Artemis smiled faintly as he joined them. Juliet's size didn't mean she was weak, after all, and for all her enthusiasm and cheer, she was observant too. He did his best to relax, to act natural, but if either sibling noticed him limping…

"I am well, thank you. Shall we leave? I don't want to keep anyone waiting."

Juliet's giggle echoed through the entry hall. "You're eager to get going early, Arty. Do you have someone special at school?" The wink she shot him was mischievous. Clearly she knew he did not have 'someone special', though she had no idea of the real reasons why, and had decided to rib him about it. Artemis felt his fingers flex, but he managed to relax his face before his irritation showed. Or at least, he hoped he had.

"No, Juliet. I would simply prefer to settle in before I am forced to meet my dorm mates."

She groaned as she picked up her backpack, settling one strap over her shoulder. "You're no fun, you know. Why do you have to be so stuffy all the time?"

Butler glanced at his sister, lips thinning. Artemis felt an uncomfortable tightness in his throat, as though it was being squeezed, and looked away. The manservant had never laid a hand on him, but finding out what Butler was like when he was angry was not high on his priority list. If Juliet didn't shut her mouth and stop being annoying for once-

The tension broke abruptly as Butler, thinking better about whatever he'd been about to say, went ahead to hold the door for them. Juliet followed immediately, always eager to get outdoors. She'd grown up in America, after all, and consequently complained whenever it rained for more than one day at a time. Artemis, for his part, took his time, glancing around the hall at the darkened windows, the shadowy portraits of past Fowls glaring down at him from the walls. They all had the same eyes – eyes like his, eyes like his father's. It set his hair on end, made him hurry to step outside and make his way down the drive toward the Bentley, which was already pulled out onto the gravel and waiting for them.

A cool breeze rushed past his face, chilling him to the bone. The trees above the driveway rustled, branches rubbing against each other with an ominous creak.

Artemis had never been more relieved to get into a car.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Butler pulled away from the curb, the Fowl Bentley rumbling softly as its engine fueled the acceleration. Artemis watched it go. His face was emotionless, but beneath the calm veneer, his heart speed up by a few beats. Free. He was free for an entire semester!

As free as he could be at an ancient boarding school stuck in the middle of the Irish countryside, that was. The closest town lay about five miles to the south. Well out of his preferred walking range.

All the same, he turned to his suitcase and hitched his bag up onto his shoulder with a renewed sense of vigor. He'd read the course textbook for each class already over break. Math and intermediate chemistry lab should be straightforward, as he knew the content by heart from hours solving equations and experimenting in the basement at Fowl Manor. He was cautiously optimistic about his philosophy class, however. That might provide some interesting debate opportunities, if nothing else. He just hoped that his least favorite classmates had chosen different classes this year: being constantly distracted by juvenile antics had never been detrimental to his performance, as he studied enough that he could do well in class regardless of the teacher or his fellow students, but it posed an annoyance that he preferred to avoid if possible.

St. Bartleby's loomed like a massive stone behemoth atop a low hill, which Artemis knew had been used as extra space to excavate a basement level that would be less prone to flooding. The building gave off a presence that was difficult to name. Not threatening, or brooding, but protective, almost as though it were a mother hen guarding the space around it and the people who lived within. The wings stretching to east and west like arms certainly added to that impression.

He found himself smiling at the thought. Of course the building had no sentience, and thus could not be protective except in the same inanimate way a castle was, but he liked the comforting aura nonetheless. He could depend on it no matter what, for as long as St. Bartleby's still stood.

An attendant swung the main door open at his knock.

"Name?"

She stood there casually, a coffee in one hand and a clipboard in the other. The circles under her eyes indicated that she'd drawn the short straw this semester, and that she preferred waking much later than this. Probably not looking for a long conversation, then. Good.

"Fowl. Artemis Fowl."

She scanned the list, her dark hair swinging back and forth as her head moved. "Right. Third wing, room 324. Should be at the end of the hall, lots of windows."

No surprises there, then. The administrators generally tried to keep students in the same rooms from semester to semester, if there were no problems that made the situation unlivable. Artemis nodded and waited for her to hand over his key from the pegboard behind the security desk. The fact that he hadn't been moved indicated that he'd probably have the same roommate he had last semester as well, which suited him just fine. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin could be counted on to keep himself to himself unless they happened to be in the same classes, and usually only came back to their shared living space to sleep or change clothes. Not that Artemis blamed him. The dormitories were drafty and cramped, while the library had a roaring fire in the winter and modern air conditioning for use during particularly hot summers, a rarity in Ireland.

Climbing several flights of stairs made his side ache fiercely, and his breath came in short, ragged bursts. Artemis didn't stop, though. He could recover once he'd settled in. In any case, he'd have to get used to the pain; his classes were scattered throughout the school, and his side could only heal so quickly.

But he frowned as he made his way down the corridor. He hoped he hadn't pulled the still-fragile wound open again.

Sighing, Artemis let himself into the softly lit silence of the dorm. The southward windows looked out over lawns blanketed by mist, gentle greens muted in the low, pre-dawn light. The one eastward window – to his right as he entered the room but to the left if he sat down on his bed – looked out over more of the same, though if he had been interested enough to spy on St. Bartleby's other occupants he could have watched the dirt trails winding across the grounds below for any signs of movement.

Wiggin wasn't there yet. Still, Artemis placed his things into the storage spaces on his 'side' of the room to keep from invading the other boy's space. He knew that he should probably get his clothes and other things out, of course, or at the very least make a start hanging them up on his side of the shared closet, but a strange lethargy took hold of his body at the thought, weighing down his limbs as though he'd been encased in lead. Not doing anything for a while sounded like a better idea.

I could sleep, he reasoned, flipping his phone open to check the time. As long as I set an alarm, it should be fine.

Artemis kicked off his loafers, stowing them under his bed, and laid down carefully to avoid aggravating his side more than necessary. It still hurt to breathe, but after a while the ache faded to a dull sting and he began to relax, every muscle losing its tension. He'd unpack later. Orientation only lasted for a few hours, after all, and then the entire afternoon would be his to use as he pleased.

Smiling, the Fowl heir closed his eyes. For the first time in several months, he felt truly, completely safe.

oOoOo

"Tired already?"

Wiggin had arrived by the time Artemis woke up, and had begun sorting his clothes over his own bed in a sort of peaceable silence.

"Mmm," Artemis hummed as he reached for his phone to turn off the chiming alarm. What else was there to say? It wasn't as though he'd ever taken his roommate into his confidence about what happened when he went back to his parents. Wiggin seemed quiet and generally polite, but he'd never been what Artemis would call a 'friend'.

He sat up slowly and swung his feet to the floor. Interestingly, Wiggin kept his eyes averted. "And how was your break?"

"Fine. I got to see my sister."

Ah, yes. His sister Valentine. Artemis had seen her once, when she'd come with Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin to pick Ender up. He supposed she was beautiful, though he had few enough examples to go by for comparison. He'd been captivated by her eyes, though: there had been a kindness in them that Artemis didn't remember seeing in a human face before.

"She was well?"

"Enjoying school. She took her first chemistry class." This time Wiggin did turn to glance at Artemis, though he looked away quickly enough. "What about your break?"

"I did not sleep well. I enjoyed Christmas, however."

Which was true enough. Artemis had seen his mother again, and she'd gone all out to give Fowl Manor a cheerful holiday makeover. The thought made his lips twitch with a small smile. Nothing could stop Angeline Fowl once she had made a decision; one year, she had even insisted on a Santa Claus theme for Christmas dinner. The entire family had eaten gingerbread elves for weeks afterward. Artemis still had trouble stomaching anything with ginger in it, but the memories were worth developing a slight aversion.

Silence reigned for a long moment, then Wiggin pulled the last pieces of clothing from his suitcase and flipped the lid closed, stowing it above his bed.

His warm brown eyes were troubled as he inclined his head towards the door. "We should get down there for breakfast."

"True."

Artemis hadn't so much as thought about food between waking up and packing and arriving at school. Then again, he had never liked sitting down for a meal when his father was at the table. No matter what he did or how quiet he was, his father's gaze would always be following him. Watching. It made eating unpleasant, to say the least.

He'd regret it if he didn't have something before orientations, though, so Artemis stood, adjusting his pants and re-buttoning his suit jacket. Maybe there would be bagels this morning. A little cream cheese on a bagel and perhaps a glass of orange juice sounded just the ticket.

oOoOo

The first thing Artemis noticed when they reached the dining hall was the noise. An absolute cacophony filled the air as hundreds of boys talked to each other, each pair of friends yelling to be heard above the din and forcing the rest to talk louder in turn.

Artemis felt his lips twitch as though to wince, but forced himself to suppress it. Loud noises made him nervous at the best of times. The general atmosphere in the hall was cheerful and excited – nothing to be concerned about, of course – but he couldn't help but hear the undertone that entered his father's voice whenever he went into one of his rages. Every nerve tingled, warning him that he should hide, get away, run before it was too late–

"Hey."

Ender had paused too, blond hair caught in a ray of light as he turned back to look at Artemis.

I can't let myself get distracted again. He'll notice. Artemis forced a shrug, reorienting himself and making for the buffet tables along the north wall.

"I got lost in thought. Apologies."

He didn't like the suspicious gleam that had entered the other boy's eyes, but there was nothing for it at the moment. His side ached as his muscles tensed under the scrutiny; there was nowhere to go until after breakfast, though, so Artemis took his time, calmly considering the bagel options.

Orientations couldn't come quickly enough.


End file.
